2-152 - Innovations in Family-based Interventions for Children with Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Parent management training (PMT) is the gold standard for treating child conduct problems (CP). Children with CP with elevated callous-unemotional (CU) traits (e.g., low guilt and empathy) have a unique etiology of CP and are less responsive to PMT. The social-emotional deficits associated with CU traits (e.g., poor emotion recognition, low empathy, disrupted attachment) suggest potential mechanisms to target tailored interventions. This symposium presents four cutting-edge approaches to personalising evidence-based PMT interventions for children with CP and CU traits, developed by research teams in Australia, Canada, and the US.
The first presentation describes a treatment development trial incorporating an Emotion Coaching (EC) intervention into the Helping the Noncompliant Child PMT program to enhance treatment and research feasibility and outcomes for clinic-referred children with CP and CU traits.
The second presentation describes an adaptation of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) focusing on enhancing parents’ warmth, rewards versus discipline, and children’s emotional skills. Results from this open trial are based on assessments of child behavior and treatment satisfaction at post-treatment and 3-month follow-up.
The third paper presents results from an intervention that targets improvements in child emotional engagement and eye contact (FOCUS). Clinic-referred children with CP and CU traits were randomized to receive standard PMT plus either FOCUS or Child-centered Play. Measures were collected at pre-, post-treatment and 3-month follow-up.
The final presentation employed a person-centered approach to subgrouping clinic-referred children based on CU traits and co-occurring dimensions of psychopathology as a means of understanding individual response to the evidence-based Coping Power intervention.

Sub Unit

• Prevention and Interventions

Chair

• Robert McMahon, Simon Fraser University

Individual Presentations

• Emotion Coaching and Parent Management Training for Children with Callous-Unemotional Traits: A Treatment Development Study - Presenting Author: Lynn Fainsilber Katz, University of Washington; Robert McMahon, Simon Fraser University; Suzanne Kerns, University of Washington; Michael Pullmann, University of Washington; Dave Pasalich, The Australian National University; Kyrill Gurtovenko, University of Washington; Shannon Dorsey, University of Washington; Maeve Cyr, Simon Fraser University

• Testing the Preliminary Efficacy of a Targeted Early Intervention for Conduct Problems with Callous-Unemotional Traits - Presenting Author: Eva Kimonis, University of New South Wales; Georgette Esme Fleming, University of New South Wales; Amy Datyner, University of New South Wales

• Emotional Engagement and Child-Centred Play as Adjunctive Interventions for Child Conduct Disorders and Callous-Unemotional Traits - Presenting Author: Mark Dadds, The University of Sydney; David Hawes, University of Sydney

• Applying Person-Centered Analysis to Subgroup Children with Disruptive Behavior Based on Dimensions of Psychopathology - Presenting Author: Brendan F. Andrade, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, University of Toronto; Mark Wade, University of Toronto; Dillon Browne, University of California, San Francisco